Wild About Math!

Review: Manga Guide to Statistics

The Manga Guide to Statistics is a cartoon book in the same style as the publisher’s Manga Guide to Calculus, which I reviewed a while back. It’s been close to thirty years since I studied statistics (in High School) and reading this book brought back memories.

For the same reasons that I liked Manga’s Calculus book, I enjoyed this one. It tells a story. It has pictures, so it engages the visual sense as well as the “word processing” sense. It takes a subject that can be taught in a very dry way and brings it to life, showing how statistics has meaning in real life problems; the importance justifies the mechanical machinery that is central to the study.

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Slide rules rule

The March/April 2009 issue of the Stanford Magazine had this delightful letter to the editor.

GOLDEN RULES

The article on Tom Wyman and his slide rule collection (“Calculating Collector,” Red All Over, January/February) takes me back to 1972, when Hewlett Packard introduced the HP-35, its first pocket scientific calculator, priced at $395. I was living in Palo Alto then, so I went to the Stanford Bookstore to see it. I found a gentleman standing at the counter, experimenting with the display model. When he finished, I asked him if he was thinking of buying one. No, he replied, he was just a salesman who happened to be calling on the store. I asked him what he sold and he answered, “Pickett slide rules.”

“Well,” I said, “doesn’t this new gadget have you worried?”

“Not at all,” he replied, “our slide rules can do anything this can do, at a tenth the price. Our sales are better than ever.”

Of course, the rest is now history, and so are those once-ubiquitous Pickett slide rules.

Richard A. Dirks, Gr. ’62
Asheville, North Carolina

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An information theory puzzle

My brother shared this puzzle with me this morning. He heard it on the radio but no solution was offered. Neither of us know what the answer is so I’m looking forward to one of you posting the answer in the comments. Here’s the puzzle:

Bob and Alice are both millionaires. They’re both curious to know who is richer but they don’t want to tell the other one how much money they have. Without engaging a trusted third party, how can they both know who is richer?

I wonder if the solution has something to do with public and private keys and/or authentication.

So, what’s the answer?

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Nonplussed! Review

“Nonplus” is not a particularly common English word so I looked it up on dictionary.com.

–verb (used with object)
1. to render utterly perplexed; puzzle completely.
–noun
2. a state of utter perplexity.

“Nonplussed” is a book full of perplexing facts, and solid Math to explain the perplexities. In other words, this book is about mathematically provable facts that don’t actually seem to be true.

Here is a great example of the state of being nonplussed and my favorite part of the book. Chapter 13 is all about Friday the 13th. Many of know that every year has at least one Friday the 13th. But, did you know that the 13th day of any month falls more frequently on a Friday than on any other day of the week? Did you know that the first day of any year ending in “01″ (e.g. 1901, 2001) cannot fall on a Friday (or Wednesday or Sunday either)? These are some interested facts explored and proven in this one of fourteen chapters.

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How the St. Louis Arch got its shape

I found this wonderful short video on Science Friday by mathematician Robert Osserman on the Math behind the St. Louis Gateway Arch. This video is a great testament to the beauty of mathematics. Watch it and tell us if you agree.

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Intel Partners with President Obama and Commits $200 Million for Math and Science Education

I received this email from Intel yesterday and thought many of you would be interested:

Today, as part of President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” Campaign, Intel joined with the President to honor America’s best math and science teachers and committed $200 million to help improve math and science achievement in the US. As part of this commitment, Intel will provide math and science training to more than 100,000 U.S. teachers over the next 3 years.

At Intel, it is commonly said that computers aren’t magic, teachers are. And that’s why Intel continues to provide teachers with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to help their students excel in math and science and succeed in an innovation-driven society.

Today’s commitment includes:

1. The expansion of Intel Math – an intensive 80-hour professional development math course for elementary school teachers – to school districts in all 50 states at no cost.
2. New Web-based instruction and collaboration tools for science teachers of all grades as part of the Intel Teach program.

Intel is also continuing its investment in the Intel Science Talent Search and the Intel International Engineering Fair, which inspire more than 600,000 American students each year to pursue math and science research. In fact, next Wednesday, 300 high school seniors will be honored as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. The 40 finalists, who will be announced on January 27, will compete for the top prize of $100,000 in Washington, D.C. from March 11-16.

See Intel’s press release for more information.

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Mini review: One Wolf HOWLS

A while ago I was contacted by Sylvan Dell Publishing, asking me if I’d be willing to review one of their books. The company publishes science and Math books for children. I didn’t think that Wild About Math! wouldn’t be a particularly good match for a review since my audience is older than Sylvan Dell’s audience. I don’t accept books for review that I don’t think are appropriate for this blog. I explained this to the publisher and they were still interested in my proceeding with reviewing one of their books.

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Winner: Cool caption crafting contest

Happy New Year Everyone!

A week before Christmas I posted a contest asking folks to come up with the best caption for this picture (click to enlarge.)

Well, I got 63 submissions and I had the tough job of picking the one I liked most. What I did was read each caption and mentally note how hard I laughed. Scientific approach, wasn’t it?

I laughed hardest at JJC’s submission so he or she gets the $20 Amazon gift card:

Welcome to Undergrad Physics in One Semester. I don’t expect you to understand anything on the board, just the Calc behind it.

Here are a bunch of the other submissions that cracked me up:

“Any questions?” - by Anais

…and that wraps up #2. Any questions? Good. Numbers 3 to 10 for homework. Careful, #7 is less straightforward. - by John Golden

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Have a symmetrical object named after you

I became a big fan of Marcus du Sautoy when I read his books Symmetry, and Music of the Primes.

   

Then I discovered the TED video, Symmetry: reality’s riddle.

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Cool caption crafting contest

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I’ll give $20 as an Amazon gift card (or PayPal cash) to whoever, in my opinion, comes up with the best caption for the image below. Click on the image to gain the full, mind-boggling, effect. The small piece of the image you see here doesn’t do the picture justice.

Leave your submission as a comment and make sure to put your email in the email field of the comment form so I can contact you if I like your caption best.

Contest ends 12/31/2009. Have fun!

Hat tip to Cliff Pickover for the tweet pointing to the image.

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